Lenovo Legion Go S with Steam OS review: Does Steam fix it?

Once I reviewed the Lenovo Legion Go S — the one powered by Home windows 11 — I did one thing I not often ever do: I instructed readers to not purchase it. Irrespective of how I approached the product, I couldn’t advocate it to anybody as a result of ubiquitous availability of higher, cheaper gaming handhelds. In that assessment, I discussed that I used to be excited to strive the second model of the product, the one powered by the Linux-based Steam OS — the identical working system that powers Valve’s Steam Deck. Effectively, Lenovo was type sufficient to ship me a check unit of the Lenovo Legion Go S with Steam OS, and I’m excited to inform you all about it.

Provided that this product’s {hardware} is precisely the identical because the Home windows variant (apart from the change in button names and case colour), I gained’t spend time re-explaining every little thing. If that you must make amends for what this product presents from a {hardware} perspective, learn my Legion Go S review first. My colleague Hadlee Simons’ hands-on with the Steam OS version at CES 2025 can also be value a learn (something he writes is).

With that in thoughts, I’ll cut up this assessment into two sections: the primary protecting what Steam OS fixes, and the second explaining what Steam OS couldn’t change.

Essentially the most important and optimistic factor Steam OS does for the Legion Go S is simplify the expertise. While you energy up the Steam OS model of the Legion Go S, you’re not greeted with any acquainted Home windows tropes. You don’t have to log in together with your Microsoft account or inform it your most popular keyboard structure. You by no means see a desktop interface. You do have to undergo an preliminary setup process, clearly, however you may navigate via each step with the controller and a smartphone for scanning QR codes — one thing that may’t be accomplished with Home windows.

Primarily, Steam OS is an working system constructed for this explicit type issue, whereas Home windows is decidedly not (or not less than till we all know if the Xbox expertise on the ROG Xbox Ally finally fixes things). That alone makes the expertise utilizing the Legion Go S with Steam OS a lot, a lot better than its Home windows counterpart.

Even when a wrench is thrown into the works, Steam OS handles it with grace. For instance, if you wish to play Purple Useless Redemption on the Legion Go S, you should use Rockstar Video games’ silly (and ineffective!) launcher. This launcher lacks controller help, which Valve can not change. So, what Steam OS does in response is warn you that the Rockstar Video games launcher lacks controller help and instructs you to make use of the contact display as an alternative. It’s not good, nevertheless it’s a easy, elegant means of informing the consumer how finest to navigate via this course of, since their intuitive response — to make use of the sticks and buttons — will show ineffective.

Steam OS can also be higher on the seemingly minor actions one takes when utilizing a large-screen gaming handheld. While you need to cease enjoying, you simply faucet the ability button. The display goes darkish, and you may put the machine down. You may depart it like that, unplugged, for hours (and even days), after which choose it up, faucet the ability button, and proceed proper the place you left off. The Home windows mannequin doesn’t do that practically as easily, and Home windows’ idle state drains means an excessive amount of battery for that to be a good suggestion anyway. For the file, I did this in a single day with the Steam OS mannequin, and the battery stage solely dropped by 3%. At that fee, I may have left it alone for over per week and never wanted to be involved in any respect.

One attention-grabbing factor Steam OS does is nerf the teeny, tiny trackpad on the Legion Go S. In my assessment for the Home windows mannequin, I lamented how small and ineffective the trackpad is on this machine (it’s nonetheless there on the Steam OS model — the small sq. underneath the best stick). In all my time with the Steam OS model, although, I by no means as soon as received the trackpad to work. Even once I was establishing the Rockstar Video games launcher, which is constructed round keyboard and mouse enter, the trackpad didn’t perform. I really feel like Valve was as perplexed with this “characteristic” as the remainder of the world, and simply determined to nerf it slightly than instruct customers to the touch it. In actual fact, Steam OS didn’t let me use the trackpad even once I performed video games that help mouse enter. I notice it is a bizarre solution to method the problem of the trackpad being so horrible, however actually, I didn’t thoughts. After a couple of hours, I merely forgot it existed.

Steam OS additionally makes it simpler to tweak your settings to exploit essentially the most out of your video games. Generally, although, you don’t want to do that. It’s because Valve has pre-configured Steam OS to alter in-game settings to work finest with gaming handhelds mechanically. For instance, all in-game settings are maxed out once I fireplace up my newest save in Horizon Forbidden West on my customized gaming rig with an RTX 4090 inside. Once I performed Forbidden West on the Legion Go S, although, Steam OS mechanically switched to the “Low” graphics high quality preset and tweaked the show settings appropriately. It simply labored.

If you wish to get extra granular together with your settings, Steam OS helps that and makes it extremely straightforward. You may tweak efficiency settings on a common or per-game foundation by hitting the Fast Entry Button (signified by three dots and positioned on the higher proper, above the Menu/Begin button). This consists of enabling a variable refresh fee (one thing no model of the Steam Deck presents), limiting the thermal design energy (TDP), altering scaling ranges, and rather more. It’s also possible to present efficiency stats when you play, and Steam OS helps you to select how a lot of this data you see.

Granted, the Home windows model of the Legion Go S provided a few of these options via Lenovo’s personal apps and widgets. Nonetheless, in Home windows, they weren’t as simply accessible and never practically as granular. Additionally, you don’t want to make use of these on the Steam OS model. Like I mentioned, the working system does an ideal job of pre-configuring the system for every sport you launch. However if you wish to get nitty gritty to convey out one of the best efficiency you will get (or do the other to protect as a lot battery life as potential), you may simply try this.

Talking of battery life, that is additionally nominally higher with Steam OS. I don’t have any numbers to share, however with this mannequin, I didn’t attain for the charger practically as a lot as I did with the Home windows model. This makes a ton of sense whenever you keep in mind that all of the ineffective issues Home windows does within the background, Steam OS doesn’t do. I don’t need there to be any misconceptions right here, although: in the event you’re enjoying a graphically demanding AAA sport, battery life on the Steam OS model goes to be similar to the Home windows model — possibly 90-120 minutes of gameplay at a full cost. However when the gadget is simply idling otherwise you’re doing issues like tweaking settings, shopping for video games, or studying sport information, battery life is tangibly higher.

Essentially the most important factor Steam OS fixes, although, is the value. With out Home windows on board, the Steam OS model of the Legion Go S drops by a whopping $130 to $599. This alone makes it rather more of an interesting product when in comparison with the Home windows mannequin, which inexplicably begins at $729. For the sake of comparability, the Steam Deck OLED with 512GB of storage prices $549.

Whereas that is all nice information, Steam OS is simply software program. It may’t change the {hardware} elements of the Legion Go S. Steam OS additionally comes with its personal drawbacks. This brings me to the subsequent part of this assessment.

Whereas Steam OS is quick, clean, elegant, and feature-rich, it’s, at its core, not so good as Home windows for vast sport help. It’s because many video games out there via Steam depend on Home windows options to perform correctly. Since Steam OS relies on Linux and makes use of Proton as a compatibility layer, this leaves a swathe of very fashionable video games unplayable natively on the Legion Go S, together with Fortnite, many EA Sports activities video games, Reign of Kings, and extra. To be clear, that doesn’t imply low framerates or glitchy interfaces — meaning the video games actually is not going to launch. Finally, that is the ace within the gap that the Home windows model of the Legion Go S has.

Granted, there are methods round this limitation through Linux functions akin to Heroic Recreation Launcher, which performs properly with third-party sport shops like Epic Video games Shops, GOG Galaxy, and extra. Recreation streaming is one other good choice, both from a cloud service like Xbox Recreation Move or from your individual Home windows laptop with one thing like Moonlight. Nonetheless, virtually every little thing on Steam that isn’t a VR-only title will launch on a Home windows handheld with none tinkering or workarounds. That is one thing Steam OS can not declare, as Home windows restrictions, Proton incompatibilities, and infrequently anti-cheat software program do imply not every little thing will run nicely or in any respect. If there’s a specific sport you need to play, I’d advocate you verify ProtonDB to see what the standing is.

Steam OS additionally has no impact on the {hardware} limitations of the Legion Go S. I’ve already talked about how Valve nerfed the teeny trackpad, however it could’t change all the opposite issues Lenovo launched with this design. The entire gadget remains to be too heavy, for instance. The button placement remains to be questionable, particularly the Steam and Fast Entry buttons being immediately above Begin and Choose (I hit the fallacious buttons many instances throughout my testing). The microSD card slot remains to be on the underside of the gadget, which might be problematic for individuals who wish to dock their handhelds. The 2 USB-C ports are nonetheless proper subsequent to one another, making it tough to plug in two issues on the similar time. These are all deficiencies I identified in my assessment of the Home windows mannequin, and so they’re nonetheless issues on the Steam OS model.

Granted, no single certainly one of these compromises is a deal-breaker. While you put all of them collectively, although, it does really feel just like the gadget remains to be not a lot better than a Steam Deck, which is $50 cheaper than Lenovo’s providing. This, in the end, is the largest hurdle going through this product.

The Lenovo Legion Go S with Steam OS ($499.99 at Manufacturer site) is the primary third-party product to run the working system. That being the case means the one logical competitor to the Legion Go S is Valve’s personal Steam Deck, particularly the 512GB OLED mannequin ($549 at Manufacturer site). So what precisely are you getting from Lenovo that you just’re not getting from Valve?

Essentially the most important factor is the show. The Legion Go S has an 8-inch 1,920 x 1,200 LCD panel, which dwarfs the Steam Deck’s 7.4-inch 1,280 x 800 OLED. Sure, OLED is superior to LCD, however decision and measurement make a giant distinction, too. Likewise, the Legion Go S has a quicker refresh fee at 120Hz (the Steam Deck faucets out at 90Hz). Moreover, the Lenovo handheld helps variable refresh charges, which the Steam Deck doesn’t.

In different phrases, simply because the Steam Deck has OLED and the Legion Go S doesn’t, shouldn’t be the deciding issue on which is best. Lenovo’s show is terrific, whatever the panel kind.

One other factor the Legion Go S has over the Steam Deck is processing energy. On paper, the AMD Ryzen Z2 Go within the Legion Go S isn’t too a lot better than the Steam Deck’s AMD Zen 2. Nonetheless, the Z2 Go is able to hitting a lot increased energy draw than the Zen 2 — 28W vs 15W, respectively. This implies that you would be able to, theoretically, milk extra frames from the Legion Go S than you may from the Steam Deck on the expense of battery life (and sweaty palms). You’ll have to be snug tweaking settings, each in-game and on the hand-held itself, however in the event you care sufficient to take action, the Legion Go S needs to be superior relating to efficiency. Additionally, needless to say a second model of the Legion Go S with Steam OS is on the best way, and it’ll have the Ryzen Z1 Excessive underneath the hood — a CPU that can completely destroy the Z2 Go and the Zen 2. Nonetheless, that mannequin will price $899 (!!!), so purchaser beware.

Exterior of those two main variations, there are minor ones as nicely. The Legion Go S has offset sticks, for instance, one thing that many gamers want. There’s additionally an eight-way D-Pad on the Legion Go S, which may offer you an edge in preventing video games over the four-way D-Pad on the Steam Deck.

Actually, even with the $50 distinction in value taken under consideration, selecting between the Legion Go S with Steam OS and the Steam Deck OLED is a matter of style. You’ll want to resolve what {hardware} options you favor after which go along with the mannequin that makes essentially the most sense for you.

The underside line right here, although, is that it is a far cry from the Lenovo Legion Go S with Home windows. While you mixed Home windows’ cumbersome, battery-draining design with the {hardware} deficiencies of the Legion Go S and its way-too-high value, you had a product I couldn’t advocate to anybody. The Steam OS model, although, is a advantageous selection for anybody who actually likes the Steam Deck however needs that it catered a bit extra to their very own play type and priorities.